Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019 - 26

injection moulding

›› Continued from page 25

a selection of products manufactured
by Fibrax

automation doesn't factor into the manufacturing process until reaching downstream assembly operations. Yet depth of
automation is under constant review.
"Automation has come on a tremendous amount in the past 15 years, " he
says. "At some point we will have to leverage those opportunities due to competition from overseas."
Sustainability is another issue which
Superfos is building into its overall business model. But beyond addressing
issues related to plastic, Seddon
says this should go further, looking at
reduced
energy consumption
through optimised
operations.
"It's a new era, sustainability is now of critical importance,"
he continues. "We have a product which
is optimised, but we're focusing on how
that packaging is used and how it can be
reused."
Seddon reports that Superfos is constantly looking for solutions which offer
a combination of environmental and
economic sustainability. The company
has revisited the idea of using multiple
materials, but the challenge has always
been how to successfully recycle those
products.

The New Choice in Gravimetric Blending

"We've had pilot schemes [looking at
recovery of used cans] and learned a lot,
but nothing so far that's commercially viable. Success ultimately depends on local
councils and waste management companies having more rigorous separating operations," he observes.
Once the cans have been collected,
the 100% PP material lends itself to reuse. Even cleaning is not an insurmountable issue. "90% of the market we work
with is now water-based paint, which
makes cleaning easier," says Seddon.
"What you're left with is material ready to
be put back into the system."
The process is made easier still by not
having to comply with stringent guidelines
for food packaging.
In the end, Seddon believes that recycling the cans will be achievable - the
company is planning other collection trials - but there will be an associated cost.
That, as might be expected, would be reflected in the product price. As he points
out, "It's not green for free."

Use and reUse

The cans produced by Berry Superfos
now contain up to 25% recycled material. On the downside, this had made
Superfos an end-user of stock built up
from other recycling sources. In addition,
as demand goes up and availability becomes tighter, the price for recycled PP
inevitably goes up.
While the company has yet to devise a
method to retrieve plastic cans from end
users, the former RPC secured the purchase of recycling company Plasgran in
2018 to drive the circular economy. But
Mark Seddon says recycled material still
creates quality issues.
"We could put more recycled material
into the containers," he noted. "But right
now, it's not just about adding recycled
plastic, it's about the effect that material
has on product performance."
Fibrax has also looked at material reuse,

Gravimetric Batch Blenders
Robust, Precise, Modular.

Production hall at the Berry superfos plant in France

WWW.PRW.COM | september/october 2019

http://www.piovan.com http://WWW.PRW.COM

Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019